- Yes, that is indeed the legendary Joe DiMaggio in an Oakland A’s uniform. Odd sight, isn’t it? DiMaggio retired as a Yankee in 1951 but lacked two years to qualify for the league’s maximum pension allowance. The A’s owner had just moved his the last-place Kansas City franchise to Oakland and was looking to make some PR and eventually convinced DiMaggio to sign a two-year contract as the A’s Executive Vice President and Consultant. It seems like the Rangers took a page from the A’s playbook when they moved to Texas and hired Ted Williams.
- Here’s an odd story out of Abilene. The police chief wrote on Facebook that the man at the intersection of Highway 83/84 and FM 707 is not homeless, not wheelchair-bound and makes $1,000 panhandling on the weekend. That man contacted a television news station to contradict those claims and stated, “I think the chief should walk a mile in my shoes.”
- Everyone remembers The Golden Girls on NBC, but many don’t remember the spinoff show with all the girls except for Dorothy. The spinoff show lasted one season on CBS and was named The Golden Palace, which I think sounds like a Chinese restaurant I once ate at in Oklahoma. Worth noting, the show also starred a young Don Cheadle as a hotel manager and Cheech Marin as a cook. Dorothy did make an appearance in two episodes. Oh, and the same theme song was used but wasn’t the beloved version you are used to.
- Amazon will fine sellers who ship products in oversized packaging
- Oscar Mayer is releasing a hot dog-infused ice cream sandwich
- Netflix explains why it snuck a physical activity tracker onto some phones – The were researching how to improve video quality when you’re on the go
- My father would have turned 96-years-old today. It is what it is.
Great share on Joe DiMaggio. Love that kind of baseball trivia. Reminded me of the story of the Texas high school phenom David Clyde drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1973. He was played immediately to generate ticket sales. It was said that without his draw to fill stadium seats (the old Turnpike Stadium), the Ranger’s owner at the time would have had to take bankruptcy. Saved the team. But they used him too hard, broke down his shoulder, and he was out of baseball by 1979. A newspaper article several years back encouraged the Rangers (or Houston) to put Clyde in a staff position for a couple of years so he could qualify for MLB benefits. Nobody stepped up. Sad. Still don’t like Jon Daniels for that reason (and many more).
Ted Williams was hired as manager of the Washington Senators and managed them in 1969, 1970 and 1971. When the Senators moved to Arlington prior to the 1972 season, Williams came along as part of the move. He only managed the Rangers in their inaugural 1972 season.
I don’t know that you can put David Clyde’s lack of a proper pension at Jon Daniels feet. He didn’t get a pension following his career because he was short on his number of major league roster days. Short of putting Clyde on the active roster, which isn’t possible for a number of reasons, there’s not much Daniels can do. The pension plan is part of the MLBPA’s contract with the league and putting him in an honorary front office position wouldn’t do anything to help him qualify for those benefits. Tom Grieve, Rangers GM at the end of Clyde’s career, said earlier this year that there was never any consideration to helping Clyde out with his service time.
It’s worth noting that Clyde is one of 600+ former players screwed over by changes to the PA’s contract with the league. I can take a lot of issues with what Jon Daniels has done with the Rangers, but he was a toddler when David Clyde and other former players were totally hosed.